Acme Packing Company
Thank you to Pride of Detroit’s Ryan Mathews, who stopped by to answer some questions about the Detroit Lions ahead of the team’s Thanksgiving matchup against the Green Bay Packers. If you want to read the sister article to this one, where Mathews asked me questions about the Packers, you can find that HERE.
Obviously, this game is going to be huge for both teams. They’re both fighting for their playoff lives right now, as only three of the Packers, Lions, Chicago Bears and San Francisco 49ers are likely to make the postseason. The team that finishes the worst down the stretch will end up on the outside looking in, even if they have double-digit wins to end the 2025 regular season.
According to the New York Times’ playoff simulator, the Packers have an 83 percent chance to make the playoffs, but it jumps to 94 percent with a win over the Lions and drops to 73 percent with a loss. Detroit is in a very similar boat to Green Bay, boasting a 73 percent playoff chance right now. That goes up to 86 percent with a win and drops to 58 percent with a loss.
From a playoff leverage standpoint, this game and the two Chicago Bears games are the biggest remaining challenges on the Packers’ schedule for the rest of the season. Let’s get into previewing this head-to-head.
The first time around, the Lions were breaking out a brand new interior offensive line. Obviously, they hadn’t gelled yet. Has that unit improved?
From Week 1, yes, they have improved, but not nearly as much as anyone was hoping–and admittedly, it was an incredibly low bar for them to clear after the disaster that was the season opener. Christian Mahogany, Graham Glasgow, and Tate Ratledge–the team’s starting interior from left to right–allowed seven pressures that game, including a couple of sacks. There was miscommunication and missed assignments galore. You all saw it: it was ugly.
Mahogany’s promising finish to the 2024 season didn’t quite bear out in his sophomore year. He was injured and placed on injured reserve after Week 9’s game against the Vikings, but his shortcomings in pass protection (nine pressures allowed over his last three starts before injury) were becoming symptomatic of the Lions’ struggles to attack down the field in the passing game. He’s since been replaced by longtime reserve Kayode Awosika, and it hasn’t looked much better. Ratledge’s rookie season has been as expected–moments where he’s getting welcomed to the league by the likes of Jalen Carter or Vita Vea, but also some stretches of clean football, so that’s been encouraging. Glasgow’s at a position he hasn’t played full-time since 2018, and replacing Frank Ragnow’s level of play just wasn’t going to happen.
Truth be told, Ragnow retiring really exposed how important his elite level of play was for this offense to be as diverse and consistently good as it was. But yeah, technically, it has improved, just nowhere near the level of optimism...
